Fictions of British Decadence High Art, Popular Writing and the Fin De Siécle

Fictions of British Decadence is a fresh account of the emergence, development, and legacy of fiction written in the era of Oscar Wilde. It examines a broad range of texts by a diverse array of Decadent writers, from familiar figures such as Ernest Dowson and John Davidson to lesser-known innovators such as Arthur Machen and M.P. Shiel. MacLeod fills a large gap in understanding the movement that helped negotiate transition from the Victorian triple-decker to experimental Modernist fiction.

Acknowlegements * Introduction: British Decadence a rebours * Breeding Decadence: The Socio-Cultural Construction of the Decadent * Decadent Positionings: Decadence and the Literary Field * The Birth of the Decadent in Fiction, 1884-89 * Writing Against Decadence, 1890-97 * Decadent Fiction Before the Keynote Series * 'Keynotes' of Decadence, 1894-95 * Decadence in the Shadow of the Wilde Trials and Beyond * The Afterlife of the Decadents * Notes * References * Index